I have to get one of these!

TV B Gone

It’s a universal remote control that turns off (virtually) all televisions. How fantastic is that! No more inane Trisha while you’re sitting in a cafe, no more Saturday night trashy TV with the sound turned off while you’re having a pint in the pub. And no more Dolly Parton and Kenny Someone-or-other while Sarah and I have coffee at Costa’s in the White Rose.

I NEED one of these. But whether I’d be too wussy to actually use it is another questions entirely.

Wednesday

Today I’ve been to give platelets, and have also been to Morrisons (which was full of people walking REALLY slowly, just to annoy me, and not looking where they were going). So although I haven’t actually done any work as yet, it’s still been quite a productive day. That’s one of the wonderful things about being a platelet donor rather than a regular blood donor. You can donate once every two weeks, rather than once every 4 months. Great when it comes to skiving off work, or procrastinating about writing essays. Here’s the National Blood Service website so that you too can donate and get time off work (free tea, coffee, biscuits, crisps and cakes as well)!

Morrisons was hideous, but I did buy a cat grooming mitten that I intend to try out on BBC tonight to try to help the hairball problem. I did buy a cat comb, but it’s best not to take that too near him if you want your fingers to remain attached to your hands!

I also picked up a parcel today. It was an afghan that I’d ordered from Sew and So. Normally I’d order anything reasonably expensive from the states because it’s so much cheaper, but I wanted this particular afghan because it was advertised with a certain free pattern, and all the ones in the states had a different free pattern. So I paid over the odds, and when it arrived, it had the wrong pattern with it. And I don’t like the one that it’s come with. So now I have to either try emailing the US company that makes it to see if they have any of the other patterns, and if they’ll let me have one, or think of something else to stitch on it. I do eventually want to do Dragon Dreams afghan, but that’s on a different fabric, and I don’t think it’ll fit on this one. Ideas welcome….

New purse

New purse

Originally uploaded by LittleRach.

Met a friend for coffee today, and we both had a good moan about coursework, shifts, not having any money etc etc. Then we decided to cheer ourselves up with a bit of shopping. I decided that I wanted a sheer, everyday lipstick, and after covering my hands in every single colour they had, I narrowed it down to either a plummy Yves Saint Laurent one, or a tawny Givenchy one. But, when I tried to buy, they didn’t have either in stock. Not to be deterred I decided to carry on shopping. Saw some lovely summer clothes in Principles, but I didn’t want to commit to buying anything in case I’m significantly thinner / fatter by the time summer gets here. Then I went to the bag stall, meaning to buy a wallet for my cards, but then saw that they had this fab purse in bright pink. I’ve been looking for a new purse for ages, but I wanted one with various pockets, and preferably not leather, because I’m veggie. I did buy one a couple of weeks ago, but it’s really too small for the amount of junk I carry around with me. So now I’ve got this one! And I’m trying to justify the fact that it’s leather by the fact that my mum eats a lot of cow meat, but buys very little leather, so really, I’m just using up the skin from the cows that she’s eaten.

Happy Easter!

I’ve had a reasonable Easter weekend – although not particularly exciting. On Friday Newt and I watched the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who together. I was never a big fan when I was a child, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really enjoyed it.

I’ve been suffering a little bit with a cold over the weekend though, so I haven’t done anything too strenuous. Played some more Emperor (Newt let me have it back because I was ill, moaning and looking pathetic – but I’ve got to give it back before he goes to work tomorrow). I got to build a couple of temples, a section of the Great Wall of Chine (that took FOREVER) and a section of the Grand Canal. I’ve now just started a new mission on a HUGE map. The ‘goals’ screen warns you not to use up all the space and resources because you’ll have to come back to it. I just know I’ll get this all wrong, put stuff in stupid places, and then not be able to complete future missions, but never mind – it’s still lots of fun.

Today I went and bought some more photo albums, and now the wedding photos are finally in order, and all in albums. It’s only taken me 6 months! The plan now is to go and see my parents fairly soon so that they can choose what reprints they want, then I’ll try to get that sorted out – but with almost 600 photos to choose from, it could be a long job. I also eventually want to get some reprints for the dressmaker, horse and carriage people, vicar, band etc etc, but I’ll sort my parents out first, and then think about that.

I’ve also been doing a bit of cooking today to try to restock the freezer a little. I made a massive batch of Lentil and Vegetable Soup, and I’ll be making a big pot of chilli in a while.

Tomorrow then, Easter is officially over, so it’s back to work. I’m meeting a friend for coffee, then I’m off to the gym to work off the cream egg (yummy!) and chocolate orange egg (not so yummy – too sickly) that I had yesterday. When I get back I’ve got to get cracking on my Perimenopausal Contraception essay, my dissertation, my portfolio and an essay on equitable health – topic as yet undecided!

Yup, I’ve got a cold

Dragged myself out of bed at some ungodly hour of the morning yesterday to go to work. Didn’t feel great, but felt infinitely better than I do today. I hate that blocked-up-nose feeling – can’t breathe or sleep properly. So I’m not in the best of moods today. On the up side, I’m not particularly hungry – which is good for the diet.

So this weekend, I’ll be doing very little. Playing Emperor and sitting in front of the TV, so that next week I can really get some coursework done. And you can all hold me to that!

I knew this would happen…

I think I’m coming down with a cold. Again. Which isn’t really all that surprising because when I was at work yesterday there were at least three people there with a cold, and two people whose children have chicken pox. My poor, beaten, battered and stress-ridden immune system just couldn’t beat those odds!

I woke up this morning with a hint of a sore throat, and as the day progresses, my throat hurts more, my nose has started to get sniffly and now I’ve got a headache and all my joints ache as well. Oh joy. I really don’t have time to be ill!!! I’m just hoping that I don’t feel too dreadful tomorrow because I have to work, and also that it’s not too crazy at work. Then, fortunately I have two weeks off – but I can’t be ill then, because I’ve got so much Uni work to do.

So I’m taking it a bit easy right now, and drinking hot water and lemon juice, and resisting the urge to take my temperature every two minutes. I know it’s high – so what good will taking it do? Except to let me bore poor Newt by saying “Look – now it’s 38.3!!!” all evening.

Emperor is evil!

For those of you that don’t know, Emperor is a city building sim game, based in China many, many years ago. And it’s Evil because it sucks away your life. When I first got the game several years ago I played it so much, and for so long that when I closed my eyes all I could see were small Chinese people pushing crates of hemp, or silk, or wheat. Newt had to take the game away from me, or else I would have been chucked off my university course for not doing any work, and not going to lectures because of said small Chinese people.

I was a survivor, I got over my addiction, and I was getting through each day. Gradually life started to get easier, and I found myself thinking of Emperor less and less, until it barely registered in my consciousness. Life was good, until the weekend when I announced to Mr Newt that I was ‘bored’. “Why don’t you play a computer game?” he said. I thought that was a damn good idea, and I remembered about Emperor. I remembered the addiction, but I thought to myself “It can’t be *that* good. This time I’ll just play for an hour or so, and that’ll be it. Back in the drawer for another year.”

But no. You’re all intelligent people, I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you what happened. I lost my entire weekend to Emperor, and monday as well. Last night I dreamt of floor plans for my city, and woke up in hot sweat when I couldn’t get silk to the Elite Housing compound because of some poorly placed roadblocks.

I have two essays, a large protfolio and a dissertation to do. Al whilst working full time on Delivery Suite. Playing Emperor was not helping me in any way. Last night, Mr Newt took the game away from me again. I cried. I wailed, I pleaded and I begged. But he held firm. The game is now hidden away, where people of under 5 feet cannot reach it. I am alloyed short, rationed periods of play, if I do my homework. So today I have begun researching a piece on pre-eclampsia, just so that I can get my Emperor fix!

And the worst thing about this – I’m not even any good at the game. In fact, I completely suck at it. You’d think with all that practice, I’d at least be halfway decent.

What *is* BBC doing?

BBC_jumper

Originally uploaded by LittleRach.

Recently BBC seems to have taken to ‘doing stuff’ to our clothes. I’m not certain whether he’s trying to kill them, or mate with them, but whatever it is, he’s become quite obsessive recently. He’ll take clothes that are on the floor, in the laundry basket, he’ll even open the wardrobe and get the clothes off the shelves. He then holds them in his mouth, and drags them downstairs. Once downstairs, he usually seems quite satisfied to let go of them. In the photo he’s got a navy jumper of mine (shame he didn’t pick something in a lighter colour so you could see him better).

Flickr

I’ve just got myself a Flickr account! I don’t exactly need another photosharing account, as I’ve got Gallery on my own site, and also have a Webshots account. But I saw the Daily Zeitgeist on Hazy’s site, and decided that I had to have one. I really like it so far. It’s easy to add photos, and there’s no total limit on photos, just a monthly upload limit. Although the ‘pro’ account is only $40 a year, so I think I might sign up for that because then you get a few extra features.

So my Daily Zeitgeist is on the right hand sidebar – I hope you like it.

Finished my nights

I’ve finished my last set of nights for at least 3 weeks! Yay!!! Although I really don’t mind doing nights, I do occassionally get a bit annoyed at losing time before and after them. I finished work on Thursday morning, then had to go to the dentist and opticians, then slept when I got in. But when I got up I was still really tired, and I honestly don’t think I’m going to accomplish anything worthwhile today. That’s not good news because I’ve got a meeting with a tutor on Monday, and I need to have something to show her, and the rugby is on over the weekend, so I’m not sure when I’m going to get anything done. Ah well, I’ll just try to relax today, and do some work tomorrow in between staring at men in tight shorts on the TV.

I also had my 50th delivery at work yesterday – something of a milestone. I’ve now bought myself a lovely mock-suede backed notebook so that I can keep track of all my future deliveries. I’m a bit annoyed that I didn’t think of this before delivery number one, but it’s too late now. I also bought some spa stuff from the Body Shop, including a gorgeous jasmin scented massage bar. Yummy!!! Consequently, I have no money left for the rest of the month, but never mind.

I’m really annoyed with our video recorder as well. It’s been very temperamental for a long while now – it turns itself on and off whenever it feels like it. But we really don’t use it that much now we’ve got cable and a DVD player, so we’ve never bothered to replace it. But last week, Newt managed to record a couple of programmes I really wanted to watch (the second half of the SuperVolcano dramamentary and the last episode of Jamie’s School Dinners) but now the stupid machine is refusing to turn itself on, so I can’t watch them!!